June 24, 2011
For over two decades we have been working to end slavery in Sudan by raising funds for slave liberation program of Christian Solidarity International (CSI-USA). On June 16, CSI-USA’s CEO John Eibner testified before a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights urging the lawmakers to take action to eradicate slavery in Sudan.
Since 1990s CSI-USA has freed more than 100,000 slaves, but according to the sources cited by Eibner more that 35,000 remain enslaved to this day.
“The aggressive Islamist power in Khartoum…bears primary responsibility for the revival of slavery in Sudan and its use as an instrument of collective punishment in its declared jihad against non-submissive Black African communities in Southern Sudan and other marginalized areas,” said Eibner.
Eibner, who concluded that a long-lasting peace in Sudan and the stability of the newly emerging nation of Southern Sudan are unlikely as long as the practice of slavery continues, pleaded the US Government to take steps to stop it including the establishment of:
1. A financially transparent and functional Sudanese national institution for locating, liberating and repatriating slaves
2. A program of research on all aspects of Sudanese slavery
3. An institution, with international and indigenous components, to monitor slavery and its eradication.
Congressman Chris Smith, Chairman of the human rights subcommittee on the Foreign Affairs Committee, commented that “their [slaves] freedom must be secured as part of the South’s declaration of independence.”
To read CSI-USA press release “CSI Urges Lawmakers To Take Action on Ending Slavery in Sudan” click here.
For the full text of John Eibner’s testimony click here.
Chris Smith’s remarks can be found here.